Sir John Templeton and Value Investing

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More today on this concept of orderliness that Templeton touches upon in Step 9 of The Templeton Plan, “Utilizing Two Principles of Success.” Here are two exercises that can boost your business acumen instantly if you can put them into practice.

Pretend you are sending a cable; that is one of the best methods for learning economy of speech. Cables are charged for by the word. Soon you will eliminate extraneous clauses, unnecessary words, and other forms of fuzzy thinking. You’ll begin to drive your points home with a force you never realized was within your power.

The persevering person will learn that in speaking and writing it is important to keep an outline in Continue reading →

In today’s post we continue our look at The Templeton Planwith an examination of Step 9, “Utilizing Two Principles of Success.” This chapter has a great story about one of Templeton’s earliest business endeavors—one he undertook before entering the world of Wall Street and even before he went off to college: the always challenging door-to-door sales business.

Young Templeton’s ability to guide his own life was put to a severe test on his very first paid job away from his hometown. For a shy young man, selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door was agonizing work. He felt totally unsuited and wanted to quit. But it was the summer before he was to enter Yale; he was seventeen and in real need of money.

Few people in 1930 had money to buy anything, let alone “extras” such as magazines. For that reason, selling magazines required more than just a hard sell; it required all the skills of persuasion and all the perseverance and patience one possessed. The sales supervisors even told the salesmen to run from house to house so they would seem breathless with excitement when they approached a prospect—just to make the sales impact greater. Continue reading →

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Today we continue our look at The Templeton Planwith an examination of Step 9, “Utilizing Two Principles of Success.” In this step, we find two of Templeton’s favorite quotes on the principle of perseverance.

Quote 1:
“The difficult we do immediately. The impossible may take a little longer.”

Quote 2:
“He who floats with the current, who does not guide himself according to higher principles, who has no ideal, no convictions—a thing moved, instead of a living and moving being—an echo, not a voice.”—Swiss philosopher Henri Frédéric Amiel

Today, we’ll wrap up our look at Templeton’s memo on keeping a client happy with part four of this series.

10) Frequent mailing of reports and studies gives the client a better understanding of our work. This helps the client to learn how much research and thoughtful work in many fields is devoted to his financial welfare. This sort of memo is especially helpful to keep in touch with prospective clients.

11) We should explain much more often than we do just how much more the client owns in terms of earning power per dollar invested and real value per dollar invested than he had when he came with us. When recommending switching from one stock to another we should often give a tabulation of five or six reasons with figures showing just how the stock purchased is better than the stock sold.

Conclusion

You may find it helpful to keep this memorandum in your desk and about once a month check each of the eleven items above against the names on your fortnightly report which you have marked as not yet fully endoctrinated [sic].

Here’s part three of our look at John Templeton’s memo from 1953 on how to keep clients happy, the latest addition to our Templeton Letters Series.

7) Each of us should keep in mind the strong psychological effect of repetition. Pointing out a good record once does not have nearly the effect of pointing out the same record four or five times. Contacts with clients week after week which report mostly items of important news about their stocks have accumulative subconscious favorable effect, whereas a series of letters or contacts which mention problems have the opposite effect. Because of repetition the question of having investment counsel costs paid by the custodian has utmost importance. Trust company costs are seldom mentioned by beneficiaries because they never see the bills or make out the checks. However, although no client minds paying the first bill, he does build up a subconscious sensitivity by having to make out a check every three months for an amount which is usually one of his largest expenses.

8) Intimate knowledge of every detail of family affairs is a proper expectation of the client, because investment counsel does fit selections to the needs and wishes of the particular client. If the counselor remembers most of the details about the family, taxes and investment holdings of the client, this gives the client a feeling that he is getting close personal attention. Estate planning is a helpful thing for establishing this close relationship. Personal friendship should be cultivated in various ways because this subconsciously encourages a favorable attitude toward each question that may arise.

9) To some extent, clients are happy to learn how good our record has been for other clients. The Model Fund is a help in this respect and should often be shown to the clients and the method of comparison described in some detail. Testimonial letters are helpful also.

Today, we’ll continue with our look at John Templeton’s memo from 1953 on how to keep clients happy. This is part two of what will probably be a four-part contribution to our Templeton Letters Series.

4. It is human to be subconsciously influenced by appearances. Those banks which inhabit marble palaces usually attract the most customers. This means not only appearances of officers but also size or organization, age, clothing, automobiles, stationary, telephone handling, booklets, and many other things. The feeling of optimism and prosperity is contagious. The counselor whose manner and words reflect uncertainty or disappointment will quickly give the same feeling to the client; and the counselor whose manner and words reflect confidence and prosperity will quickly give the feeling of confidence to client.

5. The majority of clients are interested in safety of income and growth of income more than anything else. We should make this a major point in talks with clients and in letters. For example, we should show a client not only the income percentage based on current market prices but also the percentage based on capital originally listed with us.

6. Clients are also interested in capital gains, some more and some less. Trust companies and most large investment counsel ignore this subject completely; but in my opinion we should not overlook an opportunity to point out a good capital gains record. From experience, it appears that the client is most influenced if his record is compared with that of some other investor or firm of high reputation. There is a wide variety of methods for comparing capital changes, some of which were listed in the memo I wrote a couple of years ago concerning the results letters.

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Why this site?

In July 2008, John Marks Templeton, picked by Money magazine in 1999 as the “twentieth century’s greatest stock picker” died of pneumonia at the age of 95. However, he left a legacy in the investment world that will not soon be forgotten.
As the United States and world face a shrinking economy, there is a great need to find comfort and perspective in a phenomenal investor such as John Templeton. Therefore, we have established this web resource to serve as a hub for sharing financial wisdom from John Templeton, at times written by him and at times written by his close friends and confidants.
We hope you find this information useful as we tread through the waters of uncertain financial times.